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Showing posts from August, 2009
There’s been quite a lot of behind the scenes activity this week at Yew Tree…preparations for next term are very much in full swing…which makes me a very happy youth theatre director. Highlights of preparation are as follows…venues for the sessions booked for required dates, scripts photocopied ready for distribution, theatre tickets for trips reserved, letters for members printed, enveloped and posted, extra projects researched and planned. I’m going to focus on two of the above for my weekend musings this week…the first is the letters…yes, yes, I’m fully aware that this cannot possibly hold your attention for more than 10 seconds so I’ll make this bit brief…the mountain of letters stacked up in “the office” by the end of the day was a sight to see…a sight to see… And if I could be permitted one more sentence on this topic I would like to thank Ashleigh and Charlotte for their hard work writing out all of the envelopes… we couldn’t have done it without them… The second area of focus
Jess Hopwood (black company)is our guest blogger of the week...she get's top marks for asking me on Thursday if she could do the blog...the end of my week is significantly brightened if I already have a volunteer...top tip for you all there... There’s been more than a few times at yew tree when I’ve been completely blown away or inspired by what we’ve either done as a team or what I’ve watched others in the group do. I reckon I’ve kind of grown to expect it now, watching bars being raised and all that. So, this is why I was totally surprised in last night’s 17+ session…turns out physical theatre adds a whole new atmosphere into the group- and it’s absolutely immense to be part of it. One of the main things what I’ve noticed in the last two sessions is the amount of energy within the group, not just when everybody is moving- but even when we’re given the direction just to make eye contact and hold it with someone. In one of the warm-up exercises, if Sarah said “stereo”, we all had t
We went from no guest blogs to 2...couldn't be happier...thanks to Callum for this one...in addition to being a central member of the black and gold company he is also a valued assistant within the youth theatre... At the start of the summer I was pretty gutted that I wasn’t going to be at Yew Tree for an entire summer but then it was fine because we’ve got Thursday group every week. So for the last few weeks we’ve been attempting to try and decipher the errr cryptic stimulus that we got given. None the less I was bloody over the moon because it meant not only do I still see a large amount of the Yew Tree’ers I would have missed but also we got to do physical theatre workshops for the holidays. I love physical theatre there’s nothing quite as relaxing as not thinking about anything but moving your body. So it’s been smashing for stopping me losing it for the last couple of weeks. Well I say relaxing it’s been a right work out. It’s like cross training for three hours. Particularly
Thank goodness for Dee... indispensible member of the black and gold companies... Okay sooo sorry if this is a bit rubbish, I don’t really have technical vocabulary ha but yeah, Sarah had no blogger and we can’t not have a blogger so yeah I’ll stop rambling and get on with it … I was back at my first Thursday night after missing 2 due to been holidaying… and man I missed it, so much in fact that on a Thursday evening whilst in Crete I wrote Yewtree in the sand aha .. :| … but yeah so I reappeared with Moore by my side and it was sooo good to see all the team again (: alsooo we’ve started doing physical theatre which I haven’t done in ridiculous amounts of time and I actually loved it I remember starting it the session before I went away and it was literally as someone said ‘like therapy’, y’see all the pieces I’ve been involved in recently are all acting, but like speaking acting… stuff I’m used to, but this new piece we don’t speak we like communicate using our bodies so its like phys
I’ve done quite a lot of work with adults recently, which presents me with lots of opportunities and challenges that are different to my work with young people in amongst the elements that are pretty much the same. One of the things that makes the work with adults different was suddenly defined for me in Thursdays workshop. Whenever I ask for feedback, views and opinions on Thursday nights about what we’ve done and seen I am inundated with people wanting to articulate and share their thoughts, their responses, their feelings. The level of sophistication in these responses varies as does the extent to which these thoughts have been developed but that doesn’t matter. What matters is (apart from the obvious examples) that everything people say is relevant and what’s more valued by those listening to it. Some group members are more dominant than others but everyone has a voice should they choose to use it. What’s more, in term time, Thursday nights aren’t the only night this happens…
My thoughts this week have centred on, amongst other things, the demands placed on the participants of my workshops. I’ve always felt a very great responsibility to anyone I’m teaching, directing or training to ensure that the group and each individual within the group feels supported, comfortable and hopefully inspired in some way. However it’s becoming clearer that these values aren’t always compatible and that sometimes, temporarily one has to be sacrificed for another. The Youth Theatre workshop I faciliated on Thursday night demanded that everyone involve step out of their comfort zones to some extent…nobody, unless they train every day, can whole heartedly surrender to a process like that without some effort. It’s an experience that demands that you give yourself over creatively, mentally and physically to the group, the process and the devising of a piece of theatre. Those more experienced members of Yew Tree have less of a distance to fall but still, fall you must in order
We also have a repeat performance from Tom also a member of The black Company in addition to The Gold Company First one I’ve done in a while so here goes nothing I guess. Last night or last Thursday if you read this on Sunday, we did a Physical Theatre workshop based on the idea of connection and communication between people and I enjoyed every single little bit of it. I haven’t been a part of a workshop like that for a long time and a Yew Tree one in particular is such a mind blower. You just go away with all these different ideas and conclusions about what you did, what you talked about and what you could still do. Two of my particular favourite exercise we worked at was one where in a group of three, one person (the leader) had to gain the eye contact of a another person (the follower) without the last group member (the other leader) stealing the followers eye contact, and so on and so forth. What was interesting was that Sam and Jamie’s eye connection, if you will, was more of a de
First of 3 blogs this week is by Sam Sherratt - I would be very surprised if you didn't know who she was but just in case she's long standing member of The Black Company and generally has some sort of input in most of the groups... Here it goes…my first blog. I have a habit of rambling so I’m not sure if this will work… “Language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction, a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give way under you ... at any time." Pinter Thursday evening was my first 17+ group in what felt like ages (and weirdly I feel there should be a Saturday morning because there was a Thursday night – it’s weird how my mind works) and it was a session on Physical Theatre in preparation for the York festival. I love physical theatre, I don’t know what the first piece I saw was, but I think it partly comes from a love of dance because physical theatre incorporates the both dance and drama so magically. Physical theatre to me is really powerful. Underst
This week the guest blog is by Danny who needs little introduction and the bit he might do he's done himself... Right. My first yew tree blog. This week at Yew Tree… spent it at NODA…anyone else appreciate the irony? Good. But as is so often the case, completely detaching yourself and surrendering to another perspective, means you have so much more to offer your original views when you return. Awkward metaphors already? you bet…I’d imagine most people who read this know who I am lol but if not im danny hahaha who does yknow most of the things you can do at yew tree…but this week ive been trapped in a room not unlike my university one lol (small and angular and thin walled) venturing out to either mealtimes (think Hogwarts but with sunlight…and occasional outbursts of street theatre style happenings) or to my classes. (there was also a bar and a gathering expedition to sainsbury’s but that doesn’t really count towards my point). so yes my classes. They were with Giles Foreman. Who w
I owe the followers of this blog an apology…for the first time since the dawn of the blog, last week I failed to post one…there are many reasons why this happened but essentially since first thing Saturday morning until this morning my only source of internet has been my Iphone…and marvellous wonder of modern technology that it is… (congratulations Rob on your acquisition of one) it was no help whatsoever in posting a blog…mine or anyone else’s…so once again…sorry. So what to tell you…it has been quite the week…filled with revelations, highs, lows and debates a plenty…for the last week from Sunday to Friday I have been teaching a group of 13 committed and creative adults as much as I could about Youth Theatre…it’s been an utterly fascinating experience and as I’ve taken the group through a range of ideas from character building to physical theatre and including the value of games and the potential power of devised theatre I’ve felt utterly enthused about the art form I am lucky enough
At last... Joanna (member of Gold and Black complany) sent me this a week ago but for a number of reasons it was impossible to put it up you have it now with my apologies for lateness... So I’ve decided to man up and write a blog after reading them each week and thinking I’d like to do one but it would just be me rambling. Then I realized I spend a good few minutes rambling at the start of every session because I am rubbish at being concise doing my best and worse-this week I talked about my toothbrush for far too long... and the rambling begins. I feel incredibly lucky to still be able to be a part of Yew Tree, after leaving for drama school and shedding a regretful tear that I hadn’t started coming earlier (so I could have enjoyed it for longer,) then ending up coming home often enough to keep going to Saturday mornings, then leaving completely for a year out I feel like I’m cheating by being here- it’s brilliant. I even got a bonus connections woooo! When I found out Thursday group